Albany Symphony Orchestra's principal trumpet player, Eric Berlin, says his choice of instrument came about as a result of "sort of divine intervention."

In the spring of his third-grade year, the Pennsylvania native recalled, a music teacher "came around and asked who wanted to play a musical instrument, and my hand just shot up. They asked me what I wanted to play, and I was so tongue-tied I blurted out, 'violin!' It was the first thing I could think of."

But fortunately, not the last. Enter the divine intervention.

While shopping with his parents for an instrument, "I saw this thing in the corner of the music store and it was almost like there was a beam of light," Berlin recalled with a chuckle. "It was nothing special, just a used trumpet, a Holton Collegian in a sparkly black case. But something about it just spoke to me, a sense that this was something special."

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That moment of revelation, interestingly enough, is not just a happy a memory now. It is in part the basis for a piece of music that Berlin will share with ASO fans this weekend in a pair of concerts at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall Saturday evening and at the Arthur Zankel Music Center on the Skidmore College campus in Saratoga Springs Sunday afternoon.

Along with classics by Debussy, Beethoven and Stravinsky, Berlin will be the featured soloist on a world-premiere trumpet concerto by George Tsontakis, resident composer with the symphony through its Music Alive program. It is a piece commissioned especially for Berlin that he says "is a deeply personal piece. Essentially, it's based on me."

But the concert reflects Tsontakis' aesthetic. The highlight is Stravinsky's "Firebird" suite, a ballet work that first led Tsontakis to pursue a composer's career.

Also on the program are a pair of Beethoven works -- his "Egmont" Overture and a string orchestra version of one movement from Beethoven's final string quartet, "Opus 135" -- and a pair of "Nocturnes" by Debussy.

"All of those things are part of the puzzle that is George," Berlin said of Tsontakis. "You can definitely hear the influences of Stravinsky and Debussy in his larger orchestral works."

As ASO's trumpet principal since 1998, Berlin had his eyes opened to Tsontakis' compositional talents in 2008.

"We had recorded his percussion concerto with Colin Currie, and I was so touched by that piece," Berlin recalled. "It really spoke to me. I started talking about a commission for me with him.

"It's an honor to have a piece commissioned for me. He and I established quite a relationship based on work we did together, and he got to know me as a musician and my connection with the trumpet -- how it moves me, how I use it to express things."

The new concerto's movements are inspired by Berlin's musical experiences. The first movement draws from that long-ago moment of divine guidance, while "the second movement, which is longer, deals a lot with my background as a musician," Berlin said.

With that second-hand Holton trumpet, young Eric imagined himself following in the footsteps of successful horn players like Doc Severinsen and Chuck Mangione, until the day -- nearly three decades ago -- he heard Wynton Marsalis playing a Grammy-winning classical recording.

"It was another magical moment," he said, a discovery of the possibilities of classical trumpet.

After this weekend's debuts, Berlin plans on reprising the Tsontakis concerto at May's International Trumpet Guild conference in Columbus, Ga., and he is in negotiations with the Lancaster Philharmonic and other ensembles to perform it.

"I have designs on keeping this alive," he said. "I feel a responsibility for every piece I commission -- and I have commissioned many -- to keep it alive beyond its premiere."